Pope Francis’ visit leaves lasting impression

In the final leg of his journey, Pope Francis travelled to Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families. The Philadelphia native has overseen the planning and execution of scores of events since then, though none as important politically or on as grand a scale as the Francis and Xi visits.

The pope’s comments on the plane expounded on a theme he had struck earlier in the day in Philadelphia, where he met with five sex abuse victims before addressing a meeting of bishops and priests. “I will continue to fight for you until my last breath”.

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The pope praised the witness of the victims, who were not identified, and said their presence was “so generously given despite the anger and pain you have experienced”. “And a few bishops covered this up, and it is a very ugly thing”.

Francis became the first Pope to address the US Congress, calling on elected leaders to take responsibility for crafting a fairer economic system, confronting global warming, restricting the arms trade and abolishing the death penalty.

Within the church, the impact of papal visits can only be measured after years or decades. The scandal damaged the Catholic Church worldwide, eroding its moral authority and requiring costly legal settlements.

In Cuba, Francis urged the country to continue down the path of reconciliation, fresh from helping broker dialogue between Havana and Washington, which led to the resumption of diplomatic ties.

“Would that all of us could be open to miracles of love for the sake of all the families of the world”, he said.

The pope earlier met with 71 prisoners, 60 men and 11 women in blue prison garb, who were among the approximately 2,800 inmates at Curran Fromhold Correctional Facility, a drab compound in Philadelphia’s northeastern outskirts with barbed wire topping its outer walls. So it begs the question as to why they have never before embraced a Pope in this fashion. He answered critics who said he was overly focused on the poor to the exclusion of the middle class, and wrong on economics, given his critique of the excesses of capitalism.

Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, a private group tracking the sexual abuse scandal, said the test of the pope’s resolve will be whether he follows through on his promise to hold the culprits accountable. “Now we have to put those words into real action”, Rozzi said.

He sparked a furor in Chile when he named a bishop there who many believe had knowledge of a priest who abused children, and even his statements on this visit – to bishops in one case and priests in another – lamented the scandal while praising all that the US church has done already to combat it.

Mark Rozzi, a Pennsylvania state legislator who was raped as a young teen by his parish priest, said the pope had delivered “powerful words”. Twelve USA dioceses have filed for bankruptcy in part due to hefty settlements, more than $3 billion nationwide, paid to victims.